"It does not bespeak great wisdom to call the film The Bad Lieutenant, and I only agreed to make the film after William (Billy) Finkelstein, the screenwriter, who had seen a film of the same name from the early nineties, had given me a solemn oath that this was not a remake at all. But the film industry has its own rationale, which in this case was the speculation of some sort of franchise. I have no problem with this. Nevertheless, the pedantic branch of academia, the so called 'film-studies,' in its attempt to do damage to cinema, will be ecstatic to find a small reference to that earlier film here and there, though it will fail to do the same damage that academia — in the name of literary theory – has done to poetry, which it has pushed to the brink of extinction. Cinema, so far, is more robust. I call upon the theoreticians of cinema to go after this one. Go for it, losers."
-Werner Herzog discusses Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans. (See the trailer here.)
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
20
I think he should worry less about the theoreticians "going for it" than average sane audiences not going to it. Also. Warner, you ass, you can avoid this whole problem by giving it a different name. When you use the name of an earlier (striking) film of the SAME subject matter and then out a colon behond that name with a tag that looks EXACTLY like any other franchise attempt... well, what do you expect?
I think he's saying the studio made him call it that.
so is he saying he went in knowing that was the name and these problems would exist and now he's upset they exist?
Thanks to a captive breeding program at the Cincinnati Zoo, poetry is flourishing again!
Next up for Herzog? Mrs. 45 starring Zooey Deschanel.
But it's a totally different concept. This time, the crazy bitch talks.
Now I seriously want to see Abel Ferrara try and remake Aguirre: Wrath of God! OMFG.
Director smackdown.
Aguirre: Wrath of God 2: Halloween
Fitzcarroldo: Port of Call: Cincinnati
Heart of Glass with Debbie Harry
Signs of Life: Miami, starring David...Caruso!
I spent my entire four years of art school wishing I could articulate this exact opinion of the state of theoretical masturbation that passes for aesthetic discourse in this country.
I love Werner Herzog.
Unconsummated theoretical masturbation.
Werner gets shot:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylXqc8TQ15w
What the fuck was that all about?
Does he not realize that film studies folk are the people that keep him in business? It's not like the teens that rushed to GI Joe and Tranformers 2 are now lining up for this. Is Werner Herzog's crazed view of America this off base?
1. No.
2. Yes.
They are a sado-masochistic lot.
he's right, it's not a remake of the Bad Lieutenant - it's Bad Lieutenant meets The Last Detail, in New Orleans!
DO NOT SULLY THE GOOD NAME OF "THE LAST DETAIL" WITH NIC CAGE!!!! GAAAAAAAAAAAAAH.
This movie is snark-proof, you guys!!
Seriously. Have you seen the trailer for this shit?